


Rules for Co-Existing Peacefully

by Lise



Series: Sam and Loki Are Roommates [13]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Supernatural, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Awkwardness, Developing Friendships, First Meetings, Gen, Gift Fic, Loki is prickly and difficult to get along with, Roommates, Sam is going to try anyway though, did you miss this verse it still exists, no actual warnings for this installment wow, the "how they ended up living together" fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-17
Updated: 2014-02-17
Packaged: 2018-01-12 19:12:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1196307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lise/pseuds/Lise
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eight months after the death of his girlfriend, Sam starts the search for a new roommate. He ends up landing with Loki, and it's not actually a disaster.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rules for Co-Existing Peacefully

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Shadowrayven](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowrayven/gifts).



> So tumblr user shadowrayven requested a roommates!verse fic for giftmas, and I decided it was well past time I finally wrote down the planned “how this all got started” fic I’ve been meaning to do for a while. because every odd friendship starts somewhere, and as fun as it’s been to jump in the middle…I like to know how the middle happened. 
> 
> This was originally a giftmas fic. As you can see, it has taken a while to migrate over here. I am very sorry. 
> 
> There is at least one more installment of this series in progress, and probably will be more - I've just been focusing my attention on my other multi-part projects of late. For anyone still reading - I hope you enjoy! 
> 
> As always, all installments, plus some meta and drabbles, are on my tumblr under the [sam winchester is not your therapist](http://veliseraptor.tumblr.com/tagged/sam-winchester-is-not-your-therapist) tag.

Sam stared at an inbox full of Craigslist responses with a sinking feeling. Dean peered over his shoulder and grinned. “You’re popular, Sammy.”

“Half of these are going to be bullshit,” Sam said. He eyed the email he’d just opened and deleted it. “Maybe more than half. Dean-”

“If you try to tell me you can live with me another month without losing it, I’m going to laugh.” Dean patted Sam’s shoulder. “Good luck, partner.”

Sam blew out a breath through his mouth and clicked on the next message. “A good brother would help me sort through these.”

“Did I ever claim to be a good brother?” Sam flipped Dean off over his shoulder and glanced through the messages, selected one from the email l.asgard, more on a whim than anything.  _Good afternoon,_ the email said.  _My name is Loki Asgard, a current student at the university. I saw your posting regarding housing. I currently live in an apartment six blocks from campus and am seeking a roommate. I would like to meet and converse about your taking the room._

Sam read it aloud. “What do you think?” he asked Dean.

“Who the hell says they want to ‘converse’ with someone,” was Dean’s commentary. Sam half smiled, but he wrote down the email and provided phone number. “He sounds like a jackass,” Dean said, coming over and looking over his shoulder.  

“You would know,” Sam said dryly, clicking the next email. “A lot of people would tell you you’re a jackass.”

* * *

The coffee on campus was astoundingly mediocre, and Sam was disappointed that he had only just now remembered it. He threw another look around and fidgeted.  _One o’ clock,_ he’d written on his palm.  _Loki Asgard._

He’d gone through six other people already, none of which had panned out. Three of them hadn’t even shown up to the scheduled meeting, and another had messaged him an hour beforehand to tell him they’d found someone else. It was starting to look like Sam might be spending the next year with Dean after all.

“Sam Winchester?” said a smooth, rich voice behind him. Sam scrambled to his feet and then felt remarkably foolish.

“Hey,” he said quickly. “So you’re-” he hesitated momentarily, over that decidedly unusual name.

“Loki, yes.” The smile Sam received was thin and not altogether happy, but his voice was polite enough. “It’s a pleasure.”

Looking him over, the first thing Sam was conscious of was feeling severely underdressed. His potential roommate looked plucked from the pages of a fashion magazine, from the sleek black coat to the bright green scarf around his neck. And tall. Sam was used to towering over most people he knew, but Loki met his eyes with ease. “Yeah,” he said, blinking a bit with sudden awareness of his plaid flannel. “Um- you too. Sit down?”

“Thank you.” There was a touch of cool, formal politeness to Loki’s tone that made Sam feel a slight twist of anxiety as he settled into the opposite chair. Sam sat down again, feeling wrong-footed. He cleared his throat.

“So…”

Loki folded his hands on the table. “The middle of the year is a strange time to seek living arrangements.”

Sam stiffened. “I could say the same for you.”

“I have been informed that I may not continue to live alone.” Loki’s voice was cool and level. “I suppose I should ensure that you understand that I am not looking for a friend.”

Sam blinked, faintly piqued, but at least he was honest about it. “All right,” he said after a moment, “fine, I’m just looking for someone to live with too.”

“I prefer a fair degree of privacy, a reasonable standard of cleanliness, and a minimum of loud noise,” he went on. “In return, I will not pry into your business or force you to deal with my occasionally poor temper.”

Sam was suddenly having second thoughts. This guy practically radiated haughty, aloof disdain for the world at large, and Sam couldn’t help but think of living with Jess, baking (and burning) cookies with her, all her warmth and laughter-

Maybe that was a good thing, Sam told himself.

“How much is the rent?” He asked, and Loki flipped a casual hand.

“I can manage that,” he said. Sam almost felt his eyes start out of his head.

“What?” He said blankly.

“Money is not an object,” Loki said, with airy ease. “You will be doing me a favor, and I am perfectly capable of-”

“No,” Sam interrupted, almost indignant. “No, I’m not okay with – I’m not a freeloader.”

Loki looked, for the first time, surprised. His head cocked to the side. “--beg pardon?”

“If I’m living somewhere I’m going to pay for it.”

The expression of surprise lasted a moment longer, then Loki’s eyes narrowed. “You…are insisting that I  _allow_ you to pay?”

“Like I said,” Sam said stubbornly. “I’m not a freeloader.”

The expression on Loki’s face shifted very slightly, and his hands unfolded as he leaned back. “Do you know,” he said, sounding thoughtful, “you are the first to say that, of those to whom I’ve spoken.” Sam narrowed his eyes.

“That so.” Sam took a breath through his nose. “Look, I’m not sure-”

“I’d like to give it a try,” Loki said, cutting him neatly off. “Say, perhaps – a week? We can see how we tolerate each other. You are welcome to continue investigating other options during the duration, and if it doesn’t work out, well, so be it.” His expression had lost something, and it took Sam a minute to pin it down as the arrogant disdain. Now he seemed…curious.

Sam blinked. “Just because I said I’d pay my fair share?”

“We have also been sitting here for perhaps ten minutes and you have not irritated me yet,” Loki said, and Sam wasn’t entirely sure he was joking.

A week. It might be a lot of hassle for a week, and Sam wasn’t at all sure this was a good idea. But it was close to campus, he hadn’t had a lot of luck so far with alternatives, and he was running out of time. Sam made an impulse call.

“Sure,” he said. “Trial period, for a week. Works for me.” He stuck out his hand. After a moment, Loki took it. His fingers were surprisingly cool. Sam told himself at least it was a step in the right direction, and an antisocial roommate was probably better than one who wanted a kegger every weekend.

* * *

Sam moved in fairly promptly. He didn’t have a lot to move, so it wasn’t difficult. The apartment was…nice. And very clean, Sam noted, though he wondered if that was just for display purposes while Loki was looking for a roommate. Loki gave him a tour, brusque but thorough, and did not open the door of his room, merely indicating it with a gesture.

Dean helped Sam bring his stuff up the stairs. As far as Sam could tell, Dean and Loki decided they hated each other on sight. Dean’s hackles went up and Sam could almost see Loki’s tail go bushy. They eyed each other warily across the room.

“So you’re Sam’s new roommate,” Dean said, looking a little like he wanted to take a boxing stance. Loki shrugged loosely.

“Evidently.”

“I’m Dean. Sam’s older brother.” Sam was imagining the undertone of…possessiveness? in Dean’s voice. Probably. “I think I’ve met yours a few times. Thor, right?”

The look that crossed Loki’s face was complicated – not quite a grimace and not quite a wince. “Unsurprising. Who doesn’t know Thor?” There was something to that tone, and Sam filed it away to examine later. Loki’s eyes flicked to him. “If that is sufficient for the introductions…?”

Sam blinked. “-am I in charge of this? Yeah, go ahead. I can manage my own stuff.”

Loki vanished promptly into his room. Sam counted five seconds before Dean turned to him and said vehemently, “I don’t like him.”

Sam sighed. “Yeah,” he said. “I get the impression he feels the same way about you. Impressive for you both, considering you weren’t even in the same room for five minutes.”

“I didn’t do anything,” Dean said, sounding almost offended.

“Neither did he,” Sam pointed out. “Technically.” Although he had noticed the sudden uptick in prickliness when Loki’s brother had come up. He glanced down the hallway, and then looked at Dean. “You know this – Thor guy?”

Dean shrugged. “He’s come into the shop a few times. Got a nice Mustang, really shiny car, seems to get it pretty beat up. Decent guy. I wouldn’t say we’re  _friends_ or anything.”

Sam chewed the inside of his cheek. “He ever mention a brother?”

Dean gave him an odd look. “He comes in for the car, Sam, it’s not like we have chats about family. If you hadn’t mentioned the surname, though, I wouldn’t’ve guessed that your new buddy was related. Thor’s a big guy – blond, burly, loud, cheerful.” Dean frowned down the hallway. “Maybe he’s adopted.”

“Dean,” Sam hissed, and glanced nervously down the hallway. “—never mind. It’s none of my business. I was just wondering.”

“Yeah, well, you’ve got my opinion. I don’t-”

“Like him, yeah, I heard. You’re not living with him, Dean, and at least  _this_ house is clean.”

“ _Scary_  clean,” Dean said. “Like, serial killer clean. Are you sure he’s not-”

“ _Dean,_ ” Sam said sharply, and Dean threw his hands up, but Sam still caught him casting wary glances at Loki’s closed door.

* * *

The trial week went by fast. Fact was, most of the time Sam hardly would’ve known that he was living with another person. He saw Loki maybe twice a day, briefly, in the kitchen. Cooking meals, mostly – they always smelled delicious. Once or twice reading on the couch, though he was always quick to vacate the living room when Sam wandered in. It was…more than a little strange.

“Hey, hold on,” Sam said, near the end of the week, when Loki got up from the couch, book in hand, as Sam sidled into the kitchen to get a snack. He’d thought he was being quiet, but apparently not quiet enough. “You know you don’t have to book it every time I enter a room, right? Or do I smell or something?”

Loki blinked at him. He seemed surprised by the question, though he did pause. “I assumed you would rather have space to yourself,” he said, after a long moment, his voice strangely neutral though the corners of his lips turned down. “You are uncomfortable around me.”

Sam started, and then turned to lean against the counter. “Well, yeah,” he said. “I hardly know you at all. Of course I’m a little uncomfortable. I’d be less uncomfortable if I knew you better.”

Another one of those slow blinks. Sam was reminded of nothing so much as a bird of prey, or maybe a cat. The way Loki cocked his head slightly to the side didn’t help the comparison. “I thought you were not seeking a friend.”

Sam grimaced. “That doesn’t mean I can pretend you’re just not here. I’m not that good an actor.” Loki stared at him for a long time, and Sam twitched, slightly. “What?”

Loki sat back down, slowly. He opened his book. It didn’t escape Sam that he was still keeping half an eye on the kitchen, almost like he was expecting Sam to…attack, or something. Who even knew. “If you do not mind,” Loki said, at length. “I’ll just be reading here.”

“Yeah,” Sam said, “cool,” and got some crackers out of the cabinet and cheese from the fridge. He could feel Loki watching him, and tried to ignore it, feeling just a little bit creeped out.

As he was finishing his snack, Loki closed his book and looked up. “What do you think?” He asked, abruptly. Now it was Sam’s turn to stare at him.

“About what?”

“About staying here,” Loki said, sounding almost impatient. “For the school year, at least. I find the arrangement acceptable. We are nearing the end of the week, and I would like to know…”

Sam examined him, for a second, but weird as Loki was, the apartment was quiet, and such a far cry from the one he and Jess had shared that it was like a breath of fresh air. “Yeah,” he said. “I’ll sign a lease for the year.”

He might have imagined it, but he thought he saw Loki relax, just slightly.

* * *

They filed the paperwork the next day. That night, when Sam wandered out of his room, drawn by the delicious smell wafting from the kitchen that was making him hungry, he found Loki standing in the kitchen, classical music playing from a pair of mobile speakers on the counter. “What’re you making?” Sam asked, and Loki’s shoulders drew upwards slightly.

“Ratatouille,” he said, after a moment. “Nothing particularly fancy.”

“Fancier than I can manage,” Sam said. “Dean says I’d manage to set a pot of water on fire. Simple pasta’s about my limit.”

There was a brief pause. “Would you like some?” Loki asked. His voice was cool, the question casual. Now it was Sam’s turn to start. All the times he’d seen Loki cook, he’d never offered to share. Apparently he paused too long, because Loki went on. “I am making more than enough for you to have a serving and there still to be leftovers. If you wished.”

Sam hesitated, but another deep breath in decided him. “Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, I’d love some.”

He sat down at the table, awkwardly, after his offer to help was turned down with a terse, ‘no.’ He watched Loki spoon out two helpings, something tense about his posture, almost…cautious. Sam chewed on his lip, trying to figure that out while Loki put the rest of the ratatouille in a Tupperware and put the dishes in the sink. Loki set the plate down in front of Sam almost like a challenge and sat down with his own at the other end of the table.

Sam got up and fetched two glasses of water. Loki murmured something that might have been thanks.

He took a bite of the ratatouille and started. He hadn’t been sure what to expect, but it was delicious. “This is awesome,” Sam said with his mouth full, and caught a wince, but also perhaps a tiny, fractional smile.

“As I said,” Loki murmured to his plate. “It is relatively simple.”

“More than anything I could manage,” Sam mumbled around a mouthful of food. Loki’s mouth did something strange, but all he said was, “please, chew with your mouth closed if you can possibly manage it.”

Sam gave him a lopsided grin.

“I’ll wash up,” he said, when they were finished, though all he wanted to do was sit back and enter a food coma. “Since you cooked, and all.” Loki looked faintly startled, but only for a moment before his face was wiped clean.

“I appreciate the offer,” he said, “but there are certain places I like for my things to go.”

“I know,” Sam said, with a little bit of a smile. “I mean, I noticed. And I think I know where they are. But if you’re worried about it, I can at least wash the dishes and you can tell me where they’re supposed to be for future reference.”

Loki’s expression flickered, and then closed off. “If you are expecting this to be a regular occurrence-”

“I’m not!” Sam said quickly. God _damn,_ but he was prickly. And Dean accused him of being touchy. “Just saying.”

“I suppose you can help,” Loki said, at length. That strange wariness was back in his eyes. “Though of course I was making a meal as it was. It is not as though I went out of my way to feed you.”

“No,” Sam said, “but that was the best meal I’ve had in months, so I figure I should show my gratitude somehow.”

Loki watched him the entire time they washed up, sidelong and frowning. Sam considered calling him on it, and decided not to. He had a feeling he wouldn’t get an answer for asking anyway.

* * *

Zach accosted him at work while they were both cleaning up but before Sam took off for his second job at the library. “I heard through the grapevine that you’re rooming with that Loki guy,” he said. Sam pulled his apron off and nodded.

“Yeah,” he said. “If I had to spend another year with Dean…” He turned around, and caught the look on Zach’s face. He frowned. “What?”

“Nothing,” Zach said quickly, “nothing, just…oh, okay, something. The guy attracts weird rumors, Sam. He’s – I don’t know, some kind of trouble. No one’s really clear what kind, but he doesn’t make friends and tends to leave a wave of nasty stories in his wake.”

Sam blinked. “Really?” He got that Loki was prickly, and he remembered his self-described poor temper, but… “You saying he’s, what, dangerous?”

“Psychotic?” Zach offered, and when Sam gave him a sharp look he held up his hands. “Look, I’m just saying like I hear it. And I don’t want you, uh…you know, after…”

“I’m over my self-destruction phase, Zach,” Sam said. He could hear the flat note in his own voice. “Jess has been gone for a year and a half. I’m not…I’m fine. I hardly see him. He spends most of the time in his room.”

“Okay,” said Zach, after a moment. “Okay, you know best.”

Sam went to the library, feeling vaguely peeved though he couldn’t have really said why. Maybe it was just like Dean said, that he didn’t like being told what to do.

He was on restocking duty, the kind of mostly mindless work that Sam found soothing. When he dragged himself tiredly back to his apartment, Loki was curled up on the couch, familiar music coming from the TV.

Sam bit the inside of his cheek and closed the door quietly. Loki looked up, already reaching for the remote, and Sam could’ve sworn the look that flashed across his face was almost – guilty. “Wait,” Sam said. “Don’t turn it off.  _Fellowship,_ right?” Loki nodded, fractionally.

“It has been…a long day,” he said, after a moment, almost like an excuse. Sam summoned a smile, though it felt awkward.

“I didn’t know you were a Lord of the Rings fan.”

“Tolkien,” Loki said after a moment. “In general. It is – beautiful prose, and masterful creation of a world.”

Sam padded over to the couch and sat down, carefully, half expecting Loki to bolt like a skittish feral cat. “It was one of the first books Dean read to me. I made him read the whole series.” Loki’s face closed off, slightly, and Sam remembered the way his expression had spasmed when Dean had brought up Thor. “Favorite work?”

“ _The Silmarillion_ ,” Loki said, after a moment. It sounded almost like a challenge. Sam didn’t rise to it.

“I was always more of a  _Hobbit_  guy myself, but I can respect that.” He made a gesture at the TV. “Mind if I watch with you? You aren’t the only one who had a long day.”

Loki regarded him for a moment with that same peculiar wariness that Sam had to wonder about. What exactly was it he thought Sam was going to  _do?_ “Are you a talker?” he asked.

“Not if you don’t want me to be.”

“Good,” Loki said, and settled back into his position, long legs folded up so he made a surprisingly small ball on the couch. “Then yes, you may watch.”

* * *

They settled into a routine, sort of. Loki made dinner for them both roughly once a week. Sam washed the dishes. Neither of them asked too many personal questions, and when Loki spent two days in his room without apparently emerging once, Sam kept his worry to himself.

Sam catalogued a million small details about his roommate – he organized his shelves by author and genre, he was frequently cold judging by the various jackets and robes he wore, personal questions made him edgy but he had a caustic kind of wit when Sam could get him to talk.

“You know,” Sam said, one evening, while he was scrubbing a pan of residue, “I’ve been here almost a month and I still know next to nothing about you.”

He almost heard Loki freeze, the sudden silence was so loud. “Why would you want to?” he asked, eventually. The question sounded entirely genuine. Sam shrugged.

“I’m curious?”

Wrong answer. “Well, I’m afraid you will have to remain curious.” Loki’s voice was slightly tart, and Sam held in the urge to sigh.

“What do you think I’m going to do, anyway?” he burst out, and Loki blinked.

“Beg pardon?”

“You act like I’m going to…I don’t even know what I’m going to. But even once you stopped fleeing the room the minute I came into it-”

“I do not  _flee,_ ” Loki said, sounding powerfully offended, but Sam ignored him.

“You still look at me like you’ve got state secrets and I’m an enemy spy, or something. I know you said you weren’t looking for a friend, but you  _got_  a roommate, and I don’t know why you let me stick around when it seems like you don’t even like me!”

Silence. Sam took a deep breath, suddenly wanting to sink through the floor. Loki’s expression was impossible to read, or next to it.

“I never said I disliked you,” he said, finally. The look Sam gave him felt baleful, and Loki’s expression shifted slightly toward something strangely stubborn. “I did not. And if I did then I would hardly have put up with you this long. You greatly overestimate either my tolerance or my politeness.”

“How am I supposed to know,” Sam snapped. “I don’t know anything about you except how you like your books shelved and that you like Tolkien, including the movies.”

Loki shifted. “What were you expecting?” he asked, a strange note in his voice. “I hardly spill all of my – state secrets, as you put it – to the first person to walk through my door. And how was I to know-” he stopped, lips pressing together, and Sam remembered what Zach had said,  _he doesn’t really make friends._

“Huh,” Sam said, after a moment, and then turned back to the pan. “Yeah, okay. But I have been living here for a while. And if you ever wanted to, I don’t know, actually talk or whatever, that’d be cool with me.”  _Leave a door open_ , he thought.  _Just like a feral cat. They’ve got to make the first move._

“I do not dislike you,” Loki said, at length.

“Thanks,” Sam said dryly. “I don’t dislike you too.” He was surprised to hear a quiet, stuttering kind of laugh, and realized with a faint twinge of surprise that it was the first time he’d actually heard Loki laugh at all, even if it was only barely one.

* * *

Loki had been in what Sam could only call a Mood all day. By turns snappish and brooding, melancholy and anxious, he’d been pacing through the apartment like the cat Sam found himself increasingly comparing his roommate to, until he fled to his room and closed the door.

“Everything okay?” Sam called through the door, even if it felt a little like a bad idea.

“Yes, of course,” Loki’s snappish voice came back. Sam sighed, but left it alone. If their...whatever they had…could barely be called a budding friendship, he was still wary of ruining it. He… _liked_ Loki, most of the time, god help him. Weird and prickly and antisocial and everything.

Sam heard a knock on the door, then, and walked over, ready to tell Dean that it was not a good day, only to open the door on an unfamiliar face. Tall, blond, and built, he looked surprised to see Sam. “Ah – hello,” he said, recovering quickly. “Are you Loki’s roommate? I’m here to see him.” He peered past him, already moving to brush past Sam.

Before Sam thought about it, his arm snapped out and hit the doorframe, effectively blocking the stranger from coming in. “Uh,” he said. “sorry? I don’t think I know you.”

The stranger looked surprised again, and then embarrassed. “Of course – I’m Thor, Loki’s brother.” He eyed Sam’s arm. “Please let me in.”

Sam thought about Loki’s mood all day. Thought about the way he reacted when Dean had mentioned Thor. It was an impulse decision. “He’s not here,” Sam said, leaving his arm where it was. “I can tell him you came by. Do you want to leave a note?”

Thor looked surprised. “He’s not here?”

“Nope,” Sam said blandly. “Dunno when he’ll get back, either.” He kept an ear toward the hallway, raising his voice just enough so it was audible. If Loki wanted to cut in…but he had a feeling Loki didn’t. “Sorry,” he added, only a little insincere, because Thor did look crestfallen, and Sam felt an unfortunate surge of guilt.

“Tell him…just tell him I came by,” Thor said, with a heavy sigh, and stepped back. He hesitated, and then added, almost absently, “I forgot to ask your name.”

“Sam Winchester,” Sam said politely. “Nice to meet you.”

“And you,” Thor said, but Sam suspected he wasn’t really paying attention anymore as he turned away, calling down, “he’s not here right….” Sam closed the door and retreated to the couch, feeling a little fidgety. He had the feeling he’d just gotten in the middle of something. He didn’t know what the something was, though.

Loki emerged from his room maybe fifteen minutes later. He had his ‘cautious’ look on. “You told Thor I wasn’t here,” he said, eventually, after Sam refused to acknowledge his interrogatory stare.

“Yeah,” Sam said. “You didn’t really seem like you wanted visitors.”

Loki was quiet for a moment, and then said, “you noticed.”

“Kind of hard to miss,” Sam said, and then looked up. “I take it the two of you…don’t really get along.”

For a moment, Loki’s expression closed off, but then he seemed to think better of whatever snappish answer he’d meant to give and sighed, turning his back and pacing over to the kitchen. His shoulders were tense, drawn up by his ears. “It is…complicated. He’s just…” Loki made a gesture Sam was at a loss to make sense of. “He’s  _Thor._ ”

Sam made himself stay casual. It was maybe the first personal words Loki had said to him. Or the closest thing to it. “Yeah?” he said. Loki snorted, but it wasn’t really a laugh.

“He is perfect. Isn’t that enough?”

Sam felt a little twinge. “Yeah,” he said, after a moment. “I guess it is.” He rolled his shoulders back. “You’ve met my brother. He’s insufferable, but he’s my insufferable.” He hesitated, and then took a risk. “Kinda like you, huh?”

Loki gave him a sharp look, and for a moment Sam held his breath, and then Loki laughed, one of those nearly soundless ones like he wasn’t sure whether he was supposed to be amused or not. “I suppose,” he said, smile crooked. “I take a certain pride in being difficult.”

“It gives you a charm all your own,” Sam said lightly.

“As though I needed more charm,” Loki drawled, and Sam laughed, and was taken off guard by the surprised, pleased expression that passed briefly over Loki’s face, and then was gone.

* * *

There were three packages of his favorite yogurt in the fridge the next morning, a note attached.  _My granola is in the lower cabinet. Recommend trying something that is not your usual swill. L._

Sam had to smile, just a little.

He lived with Dean. He knew a thank you note when he saw one.

This might work out yet.


End file.
